1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to identification bracelets worn by infants and parents, which are used in hospitals to identify parents and infants as being members of the same family. More particularly, the invention relates to encoded bracelets, methods for encoding the bracelets, apparatus for reading the codes in the bracelets and methods for reading the codes in the bracelets.
2. State of the Art
All hospital patients wear identification bracelets so that hospital personnel can quickly and accurately identify the patient. Identification bracelets are attached to newborn infants almost immediately after birth so that the infant may be identified as the child of a particular mother. Infant identification bracelets are particularly necessary because the infants cannot identify themselves and because newborn infants are not familiar to their parents and are not easily distinguished from each other visually.
The typical identification bracelets utilized for both adults and infants in hospitals are clear plastic straps which have a pocket (or opaque straps with a clear pocket) in which a printed paper is inserted. The pockets are not wholly transparent, but usually have a milky translucence which makes it difficult to read the printed paper contained in the strap. In addition, the printed paper is often printed poorly which makes reading the information printed thereon difficult, especially in low light conditions.
It is well known that hospital staff members often mistakenly associate an infant with the wrong parents. This usually happens because the identification bracelet on the infant is difficult to read or because the hospital staff member confuses two infants. Sometimes newborn infants are incorrectly identified by hospital staff members and then presented to the wrong mother for nursing. In a recent incident which was widely reported in the news media, an infant infected with the HIV virus was mistakenly given to the wrong mother for nursing. There have also been cases where a newborn infant was released from the hospital in the custody of the wrong parents. While it is believed that most of the incidents of mistaken infant identity are eventually recognized, current identification procedures do not provide any reliable basis for assuring that infants are correctly identified or even for indicating when an infant has been incorrectly identified. In other words, with the procedures in use today, a mis-match of a mother and infant during nursing could go completely undetected.
In addition to the incidents of mistaken identity, there have been many incidents of willful deception in which infants have been abducted or exchanged with another infant. While most abducted infants are eventually recovered, some are not. With the present identification procedures, it is impossible to know how many incidents of exchanged infants are never discovered.